Agents of Change: Microsoft

Jack Loo |
Jan. 30, 2013

Singapore’s IDA unveiled its Infocomm Technology Roadmap outlining nine technology trends that will shape the future. We asked various enterprise IT heavyweights for their perspectives on the Roadmap, and next up, we have Microsoft.

Social Media

The rise of social media and networking is profoundly affecting the way organisations conduct their business and it's poised to be particularly impactful in Asia as enterprises encourage the sharing of ideas, rich conversations and deep collaboration, while empowering employees.

Microsoft believes organisations are rapidly seeking the benefits of creating a connected user experience in the workplace, especially in Singapore where knowledge workers and youths are one of the world's heaviest users of social technologies and platforms.

Driving this trend in Asia Pacific are several factors including a young workforce, early adoption of gadgets and social media, as well as cultural trends such as relationship- focused business dealings.

This phenomenon has not only changed the way organisations relate to their customers and the public as a whole, but also the way they function internally and the types of technology they need to deploy.

Although social networking is predominantly consumer focused, it is increasingly relevant to the workplace as consumer technology and services dictate which types of hardware, software and services enterprises need to adopt to ensure employees work efficiently, productively and collaboratively while remaining satisfied in their work environment.

An Asia-wide IDC Enterprise Social Survey sponsored by Microsoft shows that 52 percent of companies in Singapore have an enterprise social network in place, and an additional 23 percent plan to adopt one in the next 18 months.

In Singapore and ASEAN, email and instant messaging are cornerstones of enterprise social network. Uniquely, respondents in Singapore identified unified communications as an important part of enterprise social network. Currently, Singapore businesses are using social tools to enhance internal training & learning management, HR functions, and collaboration with partners and customers.

The usage of social tools will continue to mature in Singapore, where ideation/innovation management, internal knowledge sharing and internal collaboration are the biggest focus areas for social tool adoption in the next 24 months.

Using Microsoft SharePoint, employees can set up websites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.

Microsoft Lync is an enterprise-ready unified communications platform. Users can keep track of their contacts' availability; send an IM; start or join an audio, video, or web conference; or make a phone call-all through a consistent, familiar interface. Lync is built to fully integrate with Microsoft Office. The Microsoft Lync 2010 desktop client is available for Windows and for Mac and mobile versions are available for Windows Phone, iPhone/iPad, and Android devices.

Yammer is a private social network for companies. Yammer is as easy to use as great consumer software like Facebook and Twitter, but is designed for company collaboration, file sharing, knowledge exchange and team efficiency. It is used by more than 200,000 companies worldwide.

Office 365 is an online subscription service which provides secure, anywhere access to email and calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing. Yammer Enterprise is included with Office 365 Enterprise.